#Ousting Thomas Jefferson sends a message of ignorance and denial of America’s ideals

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The statue of Thomas Jefferson in the New York City Council chambers.

Matthew McDermott

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

All Americans, and lovers of liberty everywhere, should celebrate those words — the most radical message in human history — and their author. The drive to remove his statue from City Hall (or anywhere else) is contemptible.

That Thomas Jefferson to his own shame failed to live up to those ideals, owning slaves to his dying day, is beside the point: No one honors him for that.

Ousting Jefferson would send a message — but not one of tolerance or a commitment to racial justice. At best, it is about appeasing the ignorant and the horribly mistaken, who’ve convinced themselves that Jefferson’s ideals, and America’s, have always been nothing but a sham.

No matter that, echoing down the ages, Jefferson’s words and ideas, and those of his fellow Founders, have slowly inspired this nation to become better — to move closer to living as free and equal men and women.

The radicals don’t care. High on their own righteousness, they’re demanding scalps — defunded police, dethroned statues — to prolong the buzz.

With their letter asking for Jefferson’s removal from the City Council chamber, Speaker Corey Johnson and several colleagues are at best playing along out of pure ambition, looking to ride the furious wave to greater power.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has opted to punt the issue to another commission led by his wife, charged with pondering a whole new wave of monument removals, building renamings, etc. — which adds up to stalling until he can see how the wind is blowing in the long term.

Sorry: The only honorable answer to the speaker’s request is a firm, hard No.